Marrying the Cowboy

by Trish Milburn

  * * *

  DESIRE FLOODED THROUGH Pete with a ferocity that caused him to imagine stripping Elissa naked right here and taking her against the wall. That was his base animal talking, though, not the man who knew that women liked to be wooed and romanced.

  But wasn’t Elissa the one who’d attacked him?

  She ran her hands up his chest, and he moaned into her mouth in response. Without thinking, his hands went to her hips, pulling her even closer. This time, she made a sound of appreciation that lit him on fire.

  Elissa broke the kiss, leaving him breathing hard.

  “That’s so you don’t worry about Brett,” she said.

  “I didn’t say I was.”

  She smiled that smile of hers that won over everyone she met. “You are not as good at hiding your emotions as you think you are.”

  At the moment, he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. Because he was pretty sure he was falling in love with her, falling fast and hard.

  Elissa stepped back and started walking away as if she hadn’t just pinned him to the wall and kissed him half-senseless.

  “Where are you going?”

  She looked back over her shoulder and offered him a mischievous grin. “You know what they say about paybacks.” With a laugh, she left him standing there as hard as the stone garden ornaments he’d lugged in here and wishing he hadn’t teased her the other night. Paybacks were indeed hell.

  Chapter Twelve

  Elissa watched as India adjusted Skyler’s veil. They both looked so happy, and they both deserved every moment of happiness that came their way after the sadness they’d both endured growing up in families that were broken in different ways. By comparison, her life had been nothing but puppies and rainbows. For a moment she was afraid that she’d used up all her good fortune, that the happiness she felt now when she was with Pete or even thought of him was fleeting. That her life’s allotment of happiness would run out just as she was beginning to think she might find the type of all-consuming joy her friends had.

  “You know, it’ll be your turn next.” India looked at Elissa as if she could read her thoughts.

  A glance at Skyler showed that she was still worried about Elissa getting involved with Pete. It was enough to allow doubt to worm its way inside her.

  “I don’t know.”

  “How are things with Pete?”

  Elissa turned away and adjusted a part of her pale green dress that was perfectly fine the way it was. “Okay.”

  “Come on. When have you ever been so secretive about a guy?”

  Elissa took a deep breath before turning back toward her friends. “Since I care so much about one that it scares me.”

  India smiled so wide that it would have lit up a dark room. “That’s wonderful. Details, woman. We need details.”

  Elissa looked at Skyler. “Not now. It’s Skyler’s big day.”

  “Oh, no. Don’t use me as an excuse.”

  “You surprise me. I figured you wouldn’t want to hear anything about it.”

  Skyler’s forehead wrinkled. “Why not?”

  “Because you’re against it.”

  “I never said that. You’ve just been very casual in the past, but there’s something different about you now. I’ve never seen you look so... Like you’re giddy or on pins and needles.”

  “Like she can’t wait to see him again,” India offered.

  Elissa paced across Skyler’s bedroom at the ranch house she now shared with Logan. “I feel as if it’s all some wild dream that I’m going to wake up from and be really embarrassed about the next time I see Pete.”

  “It can’t be a dream,” Skyler said. “Because I better be getting married today.”

  “It’s real, all of it,” India said, looking from Skyler to Elissa.

  “So, is he a good kisser?” Skyler asked.

  “Yes.” Elissa’s body flushed with heat at the memory of their kiss in the storage room.

  Skyler laughed. “Well, that was a quick answer.”

  India sat on the edge of Skyler’s bed. “I always knew Pete was a good-looking guy, that he’d make someone a good husband.”

  Elissa held up a hand. “Whoa. No one said anything about getting married.”

  “He’s not just another guy,” Skyler said.

  “I know that. It’s just...I don’t know how long this can last, even if I want it to.” Elissa leaned against the dresser. “If Pete gets into the state police academy, I don’t want anything to stand in his way. Not even me.” Her heart hurt at the thought of him leaving Blue Falls, where she couldn’t see him every day.

  “If things are meant to be, they have a way of working out,” India said. “Skyler and I are both living proof of that. Neither one of our marriages would have been a good bet when we met Liam and Logan.”

  “I’m just afraid of getting too attached.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I’m afraid I already am.”

  “Do you love him?” Skyler asked.

  “I’ve always loved Pete. How can anyone not love him?”

  “But are you in love with him?”

  Elissa let the question bounce around in her head for a few moments before she answered. “I think so.”

  “Has he said he loves you?” India asked.

  Elissa shook her head.

  “I’d bet this ranch that both of you are too afraid of saying it first.”

  Elissa kept thinking about what Skyler had said all the way through the wedding. As she watched how Logan looked at Skyler, as if he wanted to eat her up, Elissa found herself wanting Pete to look at her like that. When she searched the reception gathering for him, her heart thudded extra hard. The look wasn’t exactly the same, but the way he was looking at her made her body throb with longing. The man staring at her wasn’t the friend she’d known since they were teenagers. This was a man who had one thing on his mind.

  Liam walked up to Pete, drawing his attention away.

  “If you don’t take that man to bed soon, I think he might die of longing.”

  Elissa looked at India, who had slipped up next to her without her noticing. “If I do that, there’s no going back.”

  “Do you want to go back?”

  “No. But what if he leaves? Do I risk getting that involved? I remember how badly you and Skyler were both hurt when Liam and Logan left and you thought you wouldn’t ever see them again.”

  India wrapped her arm around Elissa’s waist. “Sometimes you just have to go on faith.”

  Elissa had always been fine with living each day as it came, grabbing on to snatches of happiness, okay with letting one go in search of another. She’d never really thought about why, but she supposed it was how she’d gotten used to living life before coming to Blue Falls. Something different every day. Not that it was bad, just different. Now that she looked back, she wondered if she’d held on to that aspect of her old life out of habit while somewhere deep inside she’d been craving stability, an anchor, being able to determine her path for herself. She’d thought living with Verona, going to high school in one place was the answer. But what if it was more than that, and it had taken her nearly fifteen years to figure that out?

  What if she’d been searching for someone instead of something or someplace? Was Pete that someone? Had a part of her known that all along and she was just too busy living her life to listen?

  She was ready to find out.

  “I’ll see you later.” She ignored the little knowing laugh from India as she made her way over to Pete, who was by himself again. “I’m ready to leave.”

  It took him a moment, but she saw when her meaning registered.

  Elissa managed to keep her hands to herself and act no differently toward Pete than she ever had until they reached her SUV. Even then, the
y didn’t speak as she made the drive back to town and parked in the garage. Not wasting any time, she slipped out of the vehicle and went inside the house, Pete right behind her. As soon as he closed the door, she turned toward him.

  “I’m not gonna lie. It scares me how much I want you right now.”

  Pete closed the distance between them. “I would never hurt you.”

  “Skyler’s afraid I’ll be the one to hurt you.”

  “You’d never do that.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because you’re worried that you might.” He tugged her close and kissed her deeply. “How long do you think we have before Verona gets back?”

  “I don’t care. That’s what locked doors are for.” Before she lost her nerve, she took his hand and led him toward her bedroom. She didn’t turn on the light as he stepped inside and she closed and locked the door.

  Pete stepped up behind her and kissed her neck. The feel of his lips against her skin sent delicious shivers skittering through her body. She pressed her palms against the door as Pete’s hands skimmed up her ribs slowly. Her breath caught when he cupped her breasts. Instinctively, she pressed forward against his hands. Evidently sensing her mounting desire, he spun her toward him.

  “You can tell me to stop any time you want to.”

  She looked up at him in the dark and knew there would be no stopping. “If you stop, I might have to hurt you.”

  He laughed, low and husky, before taking her mouth with a possessive urgency that had her hands going to the front of his shirt, releasing buttons with fingers that felt suddenly clumsy and inept. When she finally freed the last button, she ran her hands up over all that warm, taut skin, relishing the contours.

  “If the women of Blue Falls knew what you hid under here, I’d have to beat them off with a two-by-four.”

  He laughed a little under his breath. “I doubt that.”

  “Trust me.” To punctuate her point, she planted a lingering kiss on his left pectoral.

  In the next moment, his hand snaked through her hair and he brought her mouth up to his. He backed her against the door and kissed her as though they were going to outlaw kisses the next day. His lips moved from hers to her cheek, then down to her neck. When he shoved the edge of her V-necked dress and a cup on her bra aside and captured her breast in his mouth, she gasped and threw her head back. She grasped the back of his head and pressed him closer. He licked and nuzzled, but when he pulled her more fully into his mouth and suckled, she thought she might climax before they even took their clothes off.

  Though she hated to break the contact, she pushed him back, shoving his shirt off his shoulders and down his arms in one motion. In the next moment, she lifted the bottom of her dress and pulled it off.

  Pete made a sound of appreciation that sent flames dancing along her skin. He pulled her close and unclasped her bra, then threw it somewhere on the other side of her room.

  “You seem to be very good at that,” she said.

  Pete brought his mouth to her ear. “I hope you say that about other things before the night is over.”

  She gripped his biceps as a wave of undiluted desire surged through her. Never had she imagined Pete saying anything so dang sexy, something that was making her vibrate with longing. She slid her hands to his belt and started unfastening it. This time, she was the one to whisper in his ear.

  “Then these pants have got to go.”

  Pete took over the removal of his pants. When they dropped to the floor followed by his underwear, her mouth went dry. She didn’t have to have full light to tell that he was finely cut, that he had a body that was made for what they were about to do.

  Next he slid his fingers under the top edge of her panties and slowly slid them down her legs. He kissed his way back up her right leg at a painfully glacial pace. When he reached her thigh, she thought she might collapse. But that was nothing compared to where he moved his mouth next. He nudged her legs apart and captured the most intimate part of her with his mouth, licking and sucking and delving into the very core of her. If not for the door at her back and bracing her hands against his shoulders, she would no doubt collapse in a heap on the floor.

  Pete’s hands took a firm hold on her hips as he increased the pace of his tongue. Elissa banged her head back against the door as she moaned with a pleasure so intense she never wanted it to stop. In the next moment, Pete delved even deeper and she came in a wonderful rush.

  As if he knew how close she was to collapsing, Pete stood and swung her up into his arms. He crossed the room and laid her on her bed. She barely had time to take a breath before he’d sheathed his erection and was poised to enter her.

  He looked down at her. “You’re sure?”

  “Positive.”

  He filled her in one smooth thrust that had her on the verge of another climax. Again, she threw her head back, against her pillow this time. She clawed her sheets as Pete slowly withdrew before sliding in again. Her body took over as she lifted her hips to match his thrusts, each one a little bit faster than the last. Pete’s warm hands cupped her hips, helping to set the increasing pace.

  “You feel so good,” he said.

  She searched for a response, but her brain was too scrambled to form words. Instead, she wrapped her legs around his back and captured his mouth with hers. Her actions seemed to light a fire in Pete as he moaned like an animal and let go of any restraint he might have had.

  They weren’t quiet and there would be no mistaking what was going on if Verona came home, but Elissa flat-out didn’t care at the moment. “Faster,” she breathed.

  Pete complied, and Elissa felt another orgasm building inside her. Each thrust brought her closer and closer and...she tensed as she broke apart inside. A moment later, Pete cried out and found his own release. She continued to move against him, riding this glorious moment for all it was worth. But finally, Pete collapsed against her while still holding up enough of his weight that he didn’t crush her and remaining inside her.

  She let her legs drop back to the bed and ran her hands up Pete’s sweaty back. As spent as she felt, her need was so intense that she immediately wanted him again.

  “You’ve been the master of false advertising,” she said.

  Pete lifted his head to look down at her. “You weren’t satisfied?” He sounded hurt, so she brought her lips to his to give him a kiss that she hoped showed him how she felt better than any words she could cobble together.

  When they broke the kiss, she lifted her hand to rest against his face. “Everyone thinks you’re the good guy, the epitome of the boy next door.”

  “I’d like to think I am a good guy.”

  “You are. But there’s some bad boy in there, too.”

  His mouth stretched into a crooked, pleased-with-himself smile. “So you did enjoy yourself?”

  “To say the least.” She shook her head. “I should be embarrassed right now, but I’m not.”

  Pete gently pushed some of her hair away from her face. “So you’re okay?”

  As she looked up at him, her heart swelled and she couldn’t have been more surprised by her answer. “Yeah. But part of me can’t believe what I’ve been missing all these years. And right next door.”

  “I guess we’ll just have to make up for lost time, huh?”

  Her eyes widened as he shifted, revealing that he was aroused again. “That was quick.”

  He kissed her in a way that stoked her own desire. “I guess you just have that effect on me.”

  When he slid farther inside her, she lifted her hand to the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair and adding an urgency to their kiss. She was so caught up in how wonderful he felt that she didn’t understand immediately why he stopped moving. But then she heard Verona’s footsteps approaching, and her breath caught. Elissa�
�s heart rate increased as Verona got closer to her door. Only when the footsteps passed by and Verona’s bedroom door closed did Elissa let out her held breath. When she met Pete’s eyes, they both burst out into hushed laughter.

  “I suddenly feel like I’m a teenager again, sneaking around,” she said.

  Pete lifted an eyebrow. “You hid someone you were having sex with in your bedroom?”

  “No, that’s not what I meant.” She playfully swatted him on the arm. “Just because I’ve dated a lot doesn’t mean I’ve gone to bed with all of them.” She ran her finger along his collarbone. “Very few actually.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Pete kissed her forehead, then her cheek, nuzzled her ear. “Do you want me to go?” He moved his hips, caressing the innermost part of her.

  “No.”

  They made love again, slowly and careful to be quiet. As she came again, she wanted so badly to be somewhere she could cry out. Instead, she kept the sound of her pleasure under wraps. There was something oddly erotic about having to be so contained, as if she knew she was building up to some future lovemaking that would rock her world.

  When Pete slid to her side and gathered her back against him, she felt as if she could happily stay right where she was for the rest of her life.

  * * *

  WHEN PETE WOKE in the predawn hours, the last thing he wanted to do was leave Elissa’s bed. A part of him was afraid that if he did, he’d discover it had all been a dream. And he wanted what they’d done to be real, and to have it happen again. In fact, just thinking about it had him hard and nearly panting to wake Elissa by making love to her.

  Instead, he gently pushed her mussed hair away from her face and kissed her cheek.

  Elissa rolled toward him, snuggling close. He closed his eyes and relished the feeling of her like this, naked and comfortable in his arms. He couldn’t help worrying that she would regret it all under the harsh light of day, that she would try to ignore that it had ever happened as she had their first kiss.